{"id":449040,"date":"2026-05-28T06:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/449040\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:53:10","slug":"manurewa-local-board-member-takes-leave-of-absence-auckland-council-refers-matter-to-serious-fraud-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/449040\/","title":{"rendered":"Manurewa Local Board member takes leave of absence, Auckland Council refers matter to Serious Fraud Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Manurewa councillor Daniel Newman said Ahluwalia was elected to the board as part of Newman\u2019s Manurewa Action Team ticket in October last year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Newman said the video first came to his attention earlier this month, and he immediately referred the matter to Auckland Council chief executive Phil Wilson. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe matter was referred to the chief executive of Auckland Council by me because of the serious nature of the allegations,\u201d Newman told the Herald.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">He added that, during the vetting process for the Manurewa Action Team, Ahluwalia was asked to disclose anything in his past that could cause embarrassment. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHe indicated he had nothing to disclose.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Lou-Ann Ballantyne, the council\u2019s general manager of governance and engagement, told the Herald the council had been made aware of allegations regarding a local board member. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe member requested a leave of absence, which was granted by the Manurewa Local Board until 22 June 2026. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe have looked into this matter and have referred it to the appropriate agency for further consideration. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">The Serious Fraud Office confirmed it was currently evaluating a complaint received from Auckland Council regarding a local board member.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cNo further information can be provided at this stage, including details regarding the complaint and whether an investigation has commenced or will commence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">The Herald has sought comment from Ahluwalia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Police said they had received a report relating to an allegation of fraud in October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">They made inquiries but ultimately found insufficient evidence to prove that the incident constituted a criminal offence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe complainant has since been advised, and the matter will be filed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">A letter dated May 11 was sent by Ahluwalia to Manurewa Local Board chairwoman Heather Andrew requesting a leave of absence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">It cited \u201cpersonal reasons\u201d and thanked Andrew for her \u201cunderstanding and support\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">More to come &#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manurewa councillor Daniel Newman said Ahluwalia was elected to the board as part of Newman\u2019s Manurewa Action Team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59327,9092,85970,51,2372,5205,15559,3561,12514,440,80177,3302,1329,111,43,139,69,1118,6270,38538,172534,1238,1120,61],"class_list":["post-449040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-absence","tag-against","tag-allegation","tag-auckland","tag-board","tag-council","tag-elected","tag-fraud","tag-leave","tag-local","tag-manurewa","tag-matter","tag-member","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-office","tag-referred","tag-refers","tag-serious","tag-takes","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}